Aristotle's Concept of Matter a N D Odern Concepts O F Matter " 1. Introduction

In this paper P want to analyze in some detail Aristotle’s concept of matter. I do so not simply as a matter of historical scholarship, but in the interest of defending the correctness both scientifically and philosophically of what I would call the central doctrine. The elusiveness of Aristotle’s detailed remarks on the concept of matter is notorious, and I shall not take it as my task to attempt to square my account with every passage that can be cited in the major works. 1 shall give references where they are ropriate. In some cases I shall assert features of his doctrine that are not p erly documented in the text, but that I think are features of his con of matter that are pretty generally accepted. I also am not concerned to defend the details of all of his explicit beliefs. For example, what he has to say about the sun and the earth and the nature of circular motion is clearly false in detail. I am sure that if he had been presented modern astronomical evidence, especially astrophysical evidence about the swirling chaos of low density matter in outer space, he would have changed his ews. Errors in detail of this kind seem to me to be of no importance. T basic doctrine, it seems to me, is correct. oreover, I want to claim that it is correct in a strong sense : it can be s a basis for interpreting the results of modern science. Defenders totle’s concept sf matter have been too defensive about the place ir